Destiny on track to be biggest game of 2014, Battlefield Hardline not so much

It looks like Bungie’s Destiny could end up winning this year’s Christmas sales battle, as US pre-orders beat Halo and Call Of Duty.

Shared world shooter Destiny is already predicted to sell between 10 and 15 million copies, based on analysis of pre-order data by research firm Cowen and Company.

The estimates only cover Xbox and PlayStation games but you can see the full top 20 below, with Halo: The Master Chief Collection predicted to be the second biggest seller – which seems surprising for a HD re-release compilation on just one format.

At number three is Assassin’s Creed Unity, but strangely number 20 is an unnamed last gen Assassin’s Creed – despite Ubisoft not having announced any such game and it being rather late to do so now.

Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare is at number four, but speaking to website VentureBeat analyst Doug Creutz suggests that the game is following the same pattern as 2012’s Black Ops II – which had a slow build-up but went on to become the biggest game of the year.

Creutz also picks out Battlefield Hardline at number 13 as ‘unlikely to sell well’, with pre-orders ‘just a fraction’ of Battlefield 3 and 4 and roughly in line with Medal Of Honor: Warfighter – which was such a flop EA ended up abandoning the whole franchise.

EA may find more success with Dragon Age: Inquisition though, which sits surprisingly high at number seven and is estimated to sell between 3 and 4 million copies.

The game is just one spot behind the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Grand Theft Auto V, pre-orders of which Creutz says have slowed after E3 – lowering overall estimates for the game’s sales to below 8 million.